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The Chiefs have devised a special plan to counter Bulls flyhalf Morné Steyn’s prodigious kicking boot, when the two teams meet in the Super 14 Final in Pretoria on Saturday.

Steyn, the form flyhalf in South Africa this year, is not just the competition’s leading points scorer, it is his ability to land drop-goals at will that is causing a few nightmares in the opposing camp.

In fact Steyn, who collected 21 points in helping the Bulls dismantle the seven-time champion Crusaders in the semifinal last week, has kicked 10 drop-goals this season – four of them in the semifinal.

Jan de Koning writes for Rugby 365 reports that Chiefs assistant coach Craig Stevenson, speaking to the media in a teleconference from the team’s base in Pretoria, said the they will shift their focus away from Steyn and onto those players who supply him with a steady stream of possession.

“Obviously Morné [Steyn] is a very good player and he kicks the ball a long way, especially at altitude,” Stevenson said.

“They do have a very, very good kicking game and we are going to have to close it down.”

However, he feels the best way to prevent the points to flow from Steyn’s boot is to target his teammate and Springbok scrumhalf Fourie du Preez – who has been sublime in the service he has provided to his flyhalf this year.

“We have to make sure we put pressure on his scrumhalf [Du Preez] and once again they have a very, very good No.9,” Stevenson said.

He added that also need to ensure that the quality of possession that reaches Du Preez is not very good.

“As a forward pack, we need to put pressure on to disrupt their ball and try to slow it down and make it untidy. Then we can get pressure on their kickers.”

The Chiefs are also ready to launch a few drop-goals of their own, having seen how valuable those can be in accumulating points in tight play-off games.

“[Flyhalf] Stephen Donald has been practicing the odd one, and so has Callum [Bruce],” Stevenson said.

“As a team, we have decided that if the opportunity is there [to land a drop-goal], we have to have a crack.

“As you saw last week [against the Hurricanes] we had a crack, but it was charged down.

“It is part of our game plan, that if we get into that territory, to have a drop-kick. However, we will be looking to score some tries as well.”

The other aspect of Steyn’s ability with the boot is the fact that he can land penalties from a very long way out and Stevenson made it clear that discipline will also play a huge role on Saturday.

“It is very important that our discipline is huge, because at altitude people can kick goals pretty much anywhere in our half,” the assistant coach said, adding: “In finals they [penalties] really cost games.

“It can come down to a drop-goal or a penalty [to win the Final], so we have to make sure that our discipline inside our own half is good, because they’re a team that will have a shot anywhere inside our half.

“It is very important that our discipline is very good this week.”

The Chiefs also feel they can match the Bulls in the forward exchanges and set themselves up for their first Super Rugby crown.

Stevenson said the Chiefs forwards took great heart from their effort against the Bulls in Pretoria last month, a game they lost 27-33.

“We know we can scrum well against them, our line-out worked well, and we just need to make sure we shut down their momentum.

“Our loose forwards have been defending really well off our set piece and our props have been getting in to help there too.

“We know we are up against a huge challenge against a huge forward pack.

“But we only have 80 minutes of rugby left and we are looking forward to that challenge.”

@Morné (Comment 2) : the good thing about CC is that you do not need to worry about supporting other SA teams against Kiwis – you can just indulge in provincionalism and not being accused about antipatriotism or that sort of stuff

How to “stop the drop” – penicillin.
Ha ha, was a time when “the drop” was a term used for a STD.

Comment 10, posted at 29.05.09 09:19:03 by Salmonoid

Instead of introducing some ridiculous ELV’s which in no way improved the game, the IRB lawmakers should look at reducing the value of drop kicks to 2 or even 1 point. That would make teams less likely to go for this option.

However as things stand, the drop kick is extremely valuable and I can see Steyn knocking a few more over tomorrow….makes sense!

Comment 11, posted at 29.05.09 09:31:57 by Villie

Steyn will be used as a decoy. Obviously if he can he will take a drop or 2. But the gaps will be there for Spies and WO to exploit. Try Time

Comment 12, posted at 29.05.09 10:01:31 by Rahul

lets hope FdP and MS can make it through this game without injuries. GO Bulle!! Snork-Snork

Why Villie?
Drop goals only win something like 1 in 100 games which shows how little value it really has.

I’ve seen many teams squander opportunities by goign for the drop and there’s only probably 2 or 3 players worldwide that hit them enough to make it viable.

Why would you then want to diminish a point-scoring method simply because one guy does it very well.
Why not then do the same for penalties to take a good kicker out of the ganme.

Actually why not take away kicking for posts altogether and if a defending team transgresses just give the attacking team three points and have a restart.

Then, becasue Bryan Habana scores too many individualistic tries, we should require him to wear little weights in his boots.
Richie McCaw is too good at the breakdown – let him play with one hand tied behind his back.

A bit extreme yes but so if changing the rules to devalue a skill that is already very difficult and very rarely used simply because you dotn like it?

The beauty about rugby is the ability to win a game in more than one manner. It is what makes rugby unique and it what makes rugby the game we all love. Take away the alternatives and all you’ll be left with is another version of rugby league.

I must stress how seldom a game is won with dropgoals – it is already devalued.